TBTTSP - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Shang Yi Has a Story (16)

The fourteenth anniversary of their acquaintance. Saying it out loud startled even Shang Yi herself.

When she woke up that morning, Old Girl was slumped over the side of the bed, and Ugly Boy was just pushing the door open to remind her of her schedule for the day. Coincidentally, it included the dinner she had booked two days prior. Ugly Boy asked if she wanted to call that gentleman in advance. She waved him off, picked up her phone, held it to her ear, and dialed Xu Ancheng's number. "Guess what day it is today?" she asked in a cloyingly sweet voice.

"Don't test these old bones of mine. My memory's not what it used to be."

"Fine, then." Shang Yi hung up, her tone one of feigned anger.

She felt her own coyness and hypocrisy were utterly outrageous. A moment later, as expected, a call came from the Big Boss. "Oh, I really don't remember. I'm begging you, please forgive me. I'll give you whatever you want."

The phrase "I'm begging you" was rather intimate. Shang Yi propped up her foot to examine her chipped nail polish, her voice a mixture of nonchalance and petulance. "Ha, it's nothing special. It's just the fourteenth anniversary of the day we met. Are you in a meeting? Go on, take care of business. I'll find you later."

Xu Wanqing had entered the room at some point, her body as graceful as a willow branch in spring. Shang Yi glanced up at her, then deliberately looked back down and sent a few more tender, affectionate text messages.

Old Girl was just waking up. Startled to find the room suddenly so lively, she stumbled backward, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "A meeting?"

"Go wash up. Today is business as usual. You can go, too."

Ugly Boy and Old Girl left together, and Ugly Boy kindly closed the door behind them. Shang Yi tossed her phone aside. Xu Wanqing sat down on the edge of her bed and asked softly, "Is there anything Younger Sister Shang must prepare? For that gentleman?"

Xu Wanqing's inverted sentence structure made Shang Yi laugh. She hopped out of bed, her feet searching aimlessly for her slippers. Old Girl must have kicked them somewhere. She circled the bed to Xu Wanqing's side, found her slippers, and slipped them on before answering, "That's right. I'm preparing a trap to make him love me even more, waiting for the old man to walk right into it. Pretty great, huh? My intentions are quite sinister, you know. What are you doing here so early in the morning to greet me? Waiting for me to curse you out?"

The words were too harsh to respond to, but Xu Wanqing performed a masterful deflection and caught them anyway. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Shang Yi wondered if Xu Wanqing had lost her mind. She was chasing after a man, and Xu Wanqing was cheering her on from the sidelines? What were ancient women thinking?

This unexpected move left Shang Yi utterly devastated. She coughed twice. "Help? Oh, sure. Just stay home quietly. Wait for me to come back after I'm done rolling around in bed with him, then offer your warm face to my cold ass and let me curse you out. That'll be enough."

"That would be fine as well," Xu Wanqing replied with another unexpected move.

Shang Yi was at her wit's end. She could only sigh. "I give up. Can't you just get angry? You know, logically curse me out, call me a stupid bitch, and then storm off?"

"Is that the kind of drama you enjoy?"

"…" Shang Yi collapsed onto the bed. "What in the world do you want?"

"I want to help you."

"Do me a favor. Just looking at you reminds me of my own moral depravity, and my head starts to spin. I have no idea what to do with you. If you try to help, my mind will be a mess." Shang Yi rolled over on the bed once before sitting up again. Xu Wanqing, however, lowered her gaze and said nothing, seemingly lost in thought.

Shang Yi had no idea what to do with Xu Wanqing, so she sat firmly on the edge of the bed, adopting a negotiating posture. She crossed her legs, her gaze as sharp as a villainess in a TV drama after her transformation. "I'm a slag. Even if I got together with you, I'd still be out looking for men every day. My ex-boyfriends, bed partners, and secret lovers are numerous enough to form two soccer teams…"

"Oh."

"Oh!?" Shang Yi grabbed her hair, on the verge of hysteria. Dealing with Xu Wanqing was like using the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms on a cotton ball; it created no waves at all. Yet Xu Wanqing herself seemed determined to challenge her, her needle-in-cotton approach pricking her from time to time.

Xu Wanqing liked her. This affection made Shang Yi uncomfortable. Did Xu Wanqing want nothing? Ask for nothing? Shang Yi had no lovers from whom she could draw experience, so she could only let Xu Wanqing and her feelings for Xu Wanqing grow wild. Like an invasive species without natural predators, they grew unruly overnight, occupying all available space until the sun and rain had no choice but to dote on this one plant alone, while all those other seductive sluts were driven from this land.

"I don't care." Xu Wanqing's answer completely deflated Shang Yi's anger.

She sighed. "I knew it. Giving me that Immortality Pill to live another hundred years must have been part of a plan. After all, the old man won't live as long as you, right? But what's the point? Do I have to wait until he's dead before I can accept you? Don't you think…"

"It's time to eat." Xu Wanqing stood up and pressed on her shoulder, forcing her back down.

Fine.

Shang Yi's day was tolerable, aside from the unpleasant conversation with Xu Wanqing that morning.

Around noon, she called the gentleman, but he said he was too busy, far too busy, so she didn't say anything else.

Ugly Boy asked, "Should I cancel the reservation for tonight?"

"No need."

And so, Shang Yi sat on the rooftop of the restaurant where she and the Big Boss had their first dinner, letting the night wind blow on her for two hours. Afterward, she took a picture and sent it to him, saying this was the restaurant where they first ate together, that she had waited two hours and he hadn't shown up, and that she was going home to sleep now.

She had genuinely waited for two hours and was a bit tired when she got back. That evening, she took a call confirming a surgery appointment and spoke nonsense with Zhang Xu for two minutes. Zhang Xu was still sleeping over at Xu Wanqing's place, so she grabbed her bag and went back to her own den to lie down.

Ugly Boy followed behind her. "Sister, you knew he wouldn't come. Why did you still wait for him for two hours?"

"He's lived for so long, his lies are obvious. You make him feel guilty, make him feel like he owes you, and you can get anything you want."

"Oh. Sister, you owe me two hundred yuan."

"Get lost!"

She opened the door and was greeted by a massive bouquet of roses.

The old man was dressed in a well-tailored suit, a brooch she had given him long, long ago pinned to his chest. He held a huge bouquet of roses and had opened a bottle of champagne. At the bottom of a glass was a diamond ring that was quite scream-worthy. A perfectly timed apology.

"I was too busy today. I'm so sorry, so sorry. Don't be angry, okay?"

Ugly Boy glanced at Shang Yi's expression and nodded slightly. "President Xu, Sister, I'll be heading back now."

"Mm." Shang Yi closed the door behind him.

She smiled faintly as she accepted the roses, placed them on a shelf, and swept away a pile of old magazines to set them upright. Then she went back, fished out the diamond ring, and tried it on her finger. The old man watched her with a burning gaze, observing her faint display of drama. A woman acting up occasionally was a kind of charm, like a tiny hook snagging the old man's soul—a small, easily seen-through scheme that made a man feel he could control her at any moment.

Shang Yi took off the ring and placed it on the table. "I'm not angry."

"Alright, I flew over specially to be with you today. Give me a smile, won't you?" the old man coaxed, pulling her into his arms and kissing her hair. "Your shampoo smells nice."

Held like a large doll, Shang Yi remained impassive for a moment. The old man sensed something was wrong and let go. "What is it? Still unhappy? How should I make it up to you?"

Shang Yi had met him when she was in her early twenties. At first, she was just an assistant. When she realized the old man had other intentions, she entered the circle of mistresses.

Looking back, her methods had been despicable, her intentions sinister. As she slowly recalled the past, the old man before her grew a little blurry.

What set her apart from the other mistresses wasn't her ability to manage the company—that wasn't a special trait. Among the flock of women around the old man, eight out of ten who lasted were more than capable. She really didn't rank among them. Her figure was average, her face not top-tier, her voice not seductive enough, and her performance in bed was unremarkable.

The reason she had lasted until now was because one night, her biological parents had caused her a great deal of trouble, telling her they wanted to dig a basement in the house. By then, her adoptive mother—her aunt—had already passed away. Annoyed, she had been avoiding them when the old man happened to ask her to dinner.

She was very young then and couldn't hide her troubles. The words came out like machine-gun fire as she complained about everything at home, like a little girl who knew nothing of the world. The old man had said that at that moment, he felt she was very real, like a little woman who could be held in his arms. After that, he began to give her more and more authority to handle more and more things, right up to the present.

Without the old man, there would be no Shang Yi of today. The old man had cultivated her, given her opportunities. Setting aside their physical relationship, on some level, she could almost sing a song of gratitude to him.

Singing was one thing, but that bit of respect in her heart had been worn down to almost nothing by their repeated encounters. The old man had fallen from grace, leaving only a faint, sour taste that had brewed over time, like the aftermath of smoke and fire. This feeling was mixed with Shang Yi's nostalgia for her former self. The old man was the vessel for these sentiments, and she didn't know how to bring it up.

After a brief silence, she collected herself and asked softly, "What do you think of me?"

"You're wonderful, of course!" The old man was a little surprised, but he quickly understood that she was being very serious today. He composed his expression, adopting a very solemn face. "Very beautiful, very capable, very thorough in handling matters, very perceptive…"

The old man listed her virtues one by one. Except for "very beautiful," Shang Yi couldn't agree with any of the rest. But as she gazed at the side of his face, his earnest and resolute expression made it seem as if he were reciting an irrefutable creed. She began to imagine that she really did possess these wonderful qualities worthy of being loved. By the end, she was hallucinating, thinking it was Xu Wanqing before her, listing these virtues.

"Do you love me?"

"I love you!" His cloudy eyes welled with tears of rejuvenation. He was shocked that Shang Yi had finally developed such feelings for him to ask such a question.

He embraced Shang Yi emotionally. Shang Yi finally realized this wasn't Xu Wanqing.

Oh, if the ancient one were here, she would have been exposed on the spot.

Shang Yi slowly returned the hug, hating herself for asking him such an emotional-sounding question.

That night, he held her, held her tightly, snuggling against her as he slept as if he were so moved by her that he wanted to tear out his heart for her.

After the lights were out, Shang Yi suddenly asked, "How much do you love me?"

"I could give you all my wealth," he answered softly, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Let's sleep?"

"Was that not the right answer?"

"Just asking."

After the old man's breathing evened out into snores, Shang Yi quietly got up.

Old people were light sleepers. The sound of her rustling like a mouse woke him. He turned over, his voice drowsy. "What's wrong?"

"Ugly Boy's family has a bit of an issue. I'm going to go check on it. I'll call you tomorrow."

"What issue?"

"My parents are acting up again. It's nothing."

"How much could they possibly spend? Just let them spend it." The old man had no suspicions and trustingly rolled over and went back to sleep.

After making up the excuse, Shang Yi felt her heart race and her eyes burn with a thrill.

She took out her key and opened the door, only to see a desk lamp lit on the coffee table. Xu Wanqing was hunched over it, writing furiously, her brush moving so fast it seemed about to take flight.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Shang Yi glanced down at the time. One in the morning.

"I'm almost finished. I wanted to get it written as soon as possible." Xu Wanqing stood up, took her bag, and put it away. Shang Yi looked at the draft, then flipped on the overhead light. "You're going to ruin your eyes."

"Fan Yaoyao said it wastes electricity."

"It doesn't cost that much."

"It's always better to save."

Xu Wanqing was here pinching pennies for her. Shang Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "If you go blind, I'll have to spend money to get you glasses. Protecting your eyes is saving me money."

"You're so extravagant. This light is sufficient, it's already very bright. Wouldn't turning on that one be a waste?"

"Just write." Shang Yi sat down across from her. Xu Wanqing focused on her writing. After three or four pages, she let out a breath and handed the thick stack of paper to her for review.

The only sound in the large room was Shang Yi turning the pages. It was a love story, between a female ghost and a human, but it wasn't the fantasy of some poor scholar. It was a lesbian novel. A young lady from a wealthy family fell ill and was confined to her home. After many doctors failed to cure her, her family left her in a separate courtyard to fend for herself. By chance, a female ghost was drawn to the scholar tree in the courtyard. The ghost was worldly and carefree, and she showed the young lady many wonders. The young lady then developed a different kind of affection for the ghost. Startled, the ghost distanced herself from the young lady, whose illness then worsened until she was on the brink of death. At this time, a certain Mr. Duo appeared. He was originally the young lady's betrothed, and though the engagement was supposed to be canceled, he fell in love with her at first sight and was willing to wait for her recovery. But who would have thought that this Mr. Duo was a man of wicked ways, secretly plotting to harm the young lady. The female ghost finally reappeared. Together, the human and the ghost devised a plan to expose Mr. Duo's true nature. Seeing the ghost again, the young lady's lovesickness was cured. The ghost, knowing she had caused this ill-fated love, begged a deity to help the young lady let go of her obsession. As for herself, having committed the sin of creating this entanglement, her soul scattered and dissipated.

"Why is it a tragedy?" Shang Yi put down the papers and stared at Xu Wanqing, but Xu Wanqing looked away, overcome with shyness.

Shang Yi understood at once. She picked up the papers again and read every word carefully. "Who am I? This Miss Cheng?"

"The female ghost!" Xu Wanqing chided her softly. "You can't even tell that?"

"Then who is Mr. Duo?"

"Just something I made up. I've been married twice. I could have based him on either one, how would you know?"

"I know!"

Shang Yi put down the manuscript and clapped her hands as she recalled, "You told me. You told me about your two husbands. Speaking of which, if I'm the female ghost, she's way too good. I'm not this good—so gentle yet so decisive. Tsk, tsk. If I were this Miss Cheng, I'd love the female ghost too."

"If you were the female ghost, would you have any feelings for this Miss Cheng?"

Xu Wanqing's question could have been about the plot, or it could have been hinting at something else.

Obviously! It was hinting at something else!

Shang Yi sensed a trap, but she had to walk into it. She scanned the pages again. The sun was already rising. It was past four.

"This Miss Cheng is so wonderful. Though her health is poor, her heart is vast. She's kind, gentle, skilled in all the fine arts, and has a zest for life. Even when the ghost treats her that way, she remains devoted. That's so rare. She's good to her maids, good to her parents—a flawless person. Xu Wanqing, you're really smuggling in your personal agenda here!"

"Miss Cheng was confined to her chambers, completely ignorant of the world. She has no mind of her own when things happen, relying entirely on the ghost. Her fate is fraught with misfortune, and she wallows in self-pity, always bringing unhappiness to others. She seems destined for a short life, and her only stroke of luck was meeting the ghost…"

Is that how Xu Wanqing saw herself?

Shang Yi paused for a moment. The way Xu Wanqing's eyes were downcast, her self-perception so skewed, was a little amusing.

The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them back. She gathered the manuscript, found a stapler, and clicked it shut. "I'll type this up another day and help you proofread it."

"Alright."

"Xu Yijiu?"

"Hm?"

Shang Yi stood with her arms crossed, looking as if she were about to tear Xu Wanqing a new one. Usually, using someone's full name was a sign of impending scolding, the calm before the storm. Now that she was using her courtesy name, it carried an even greater, sudden seriousness.

She flipped through the manuscript with a rustle, then finally placed it gently on the bookshelf.

"What is it that Younger Sister Shang wishes to say?"

At some point, Xu Wanqing had moved to stand right in front of her.

"You… um… what do you think of me?"

"Annoying. You have the faint scent of that man's cologne on you. And you disturbed my rest in the middle of the night."

"You weren't resting either… It's almost five. Hurry up and get some sleep. We have to get ready to accompany Zhang Xu to her surgery at nine." Shang Yi gave a wry smile and sniffed herself. It was true, she carried that unique scent of the old man—not bad, but not pleasant either. It was an invasive scent; a single hug from him was enough to transfer it, and it wouldn't blow away.

She knew Xu Wanqing wouldn't answer her question seriously.

The woman across from her truly seemed, as she herself had said, not to care at all. She merely frowned at the scent of another man, as if she had no possessiveness whatsoever.

On the verge of a momentous decision, Shang Yi's paranoia flared up. She began to think that Xu Wanqing had just been lonely for five hundred years, and that besides her, Shang Yi, there were no other suckers to be found.

But in the fifteen seconds of silence that followed, she counted down, swallowing her paranoia bit by bit, and waited for Xu Wanqing's answer.

"I've become someone I don't recognize, venomously wishing for a stranger to die every day. I know it's wrong. I hate your indecisiveness, yet I'm afraid that when faced with a choice, you won't choose me. I am nothing more than the sickly girl in the secluded courtyard, and my only hope each day is for the ghost in the scholar tree to come and glance my way…"

Shang Yi's countdown ended. Her paranoia was banished. She finally let out a soft sigh.

"Just because I don't say it doesn't mean I'm not afraid. Shang Yi, all I know is how to read and write. I can't compare to others…"

Of course reading and writing were good! Was it really better to be like her, reeking of money, all for the sake of profit?

It was as if Shang Yi was meeting Xu Wanqing for the first time. Hadn't Xu Wanqing always been so progressive, so confident, radiating the grace of an ancient woman? She would mock her when she wanted, needle her when she felt like it, never backing down. Even her confession had been her own initiative, striving to be ahead of her time.

Xu Wanqing had this self-pitying side to her?

Shang Yi chuckled. After a moment, she couldn't laugh anymore. Xu Wanqing's sobs were like a kitten's tail brushing against her palm, a soft tickle that landed gently in her ears. Shang Yi felt her ears grow warm.

Xu Wanqing had her back to her, crying with restraint and softness.

"I'm sorry…" Shang Yi patted her shoulder gently.

Xu Wanqing stifled her sobs and slowly turned around.

As if bewitched by that tear-streaked face, Shang Yi felt she wasn't quite herself anymore.

She felt that nothing but a kiss could express her emotions. Her arms grew stiff as she slowly reached out to pull the timid woman into her embrace. She held her close, infinitely close. In the faint light of dawn, she could almost see through time and space to the earring on Xu Wanqing's earlobe. There was nothing there, yet she gently kissed the woman's cold earlobe, as if hearing the crisp jingle of beads colliding. There was nothing on that soft neck, yet she could almost see the bright red string of a talisman, a stark contrast to the white skin, as white as the bright moon. She sucked and bit at her neck as if tasting moonlight.

She gradually felt the person in her arms respond, returning her embrace with extreme caution. And so, like a snake, she coiled around her, their tails intertwining with utmost seduction.

She tore open the second button of her blouse. The talisman bloomed like a tiny flower over her heart. Xu Wanqing gazed at her, her eyes no longer downcast.

Tearing off her outer clothes, she slammed the bedroom door shut. Her libido, honed by countless experiences, took complete control. Shang Yi came to her senses as if drowning in a dream, never wanting to wake, eagerly pulling the other person onto the bed. The woman in her arms turned her head away in shyness.

The talisman was pulled to the side. Shang Yi shifted closer to accommodate it.

Beside her ear, a question, so soft it was almost inaudible: "Are you in heat?"

"What if I am?"

The woman's body was soft and supple, almost overflowing between her fingers when squeezed. She proved with fierce force that she was a female beast in heat, leaving a bite mark wherever she pleased.

Inopportunely, she remembered her experiences with that man. She would straddle him, looking down with a seductive expression and a captivating voice, moaning wantonly as a matter of routine while her mind wandered to unfinished projects. Her body, however, had long since betrayed her.

"I will help you."

Beside her ear, Xu Wanqing's voice, so gentle it was almost feverish, pulled her back to the present. At some point, she had been flipped over forcefully.

The woman was naturally gifted; she had clearly read her share of indecent books. She relaxed, responding gently to the feeling of invasion from her lower abdomen, and watched the ancient one who was so intently studying her body.

She couldn't help but let out a low gasp, her cheeks burning as if she were murmuring by a fire.

Xu Wanqing's face instantly turned crimson, as if she were the one lying there at the mercy of another.

"Harder, my dear," Shang Yi said deliberately. The ancient one silently leaned over to kiss her, as if afraid of what she might say, yet also afraid she might not say anything, her face flushed red.

Her cold fingertips were still damp. Shang Yi took the ancient one's slender fingers and took them into her mouth one by one. She looked up with wet eyes, tempting her to truly become fierce, to crush her body, to shatter, collide, spin, devour, and knead, doing everything in her power to please her.

She was the villain, the bad woman corrupting a virtuous lady. When she wanted it, she boldly lifted her hips, letting out the seductive moans once used to please men for Xu Wanqing. Shamelessly, she whispered pleas for her to love her, to love her fiercely, certain that in this world there was only the two of them, letting herself tremble only for this woman, shaking, twisting her waist in excitement, demanding more in her pleasure.

She had already obtained all of this woman's wealth. She didn't need fine roses, endless diamond rings, champagne that was never drunk, or the unpleasant perfume on the bed at night. She didn't need the hypocritical waiting in the rooftop wind, nor a promise that could never be fulfilled.

She didn't have to ask to know that Xu Wanqing loved her.

No need to ask.

But women are occasionally paranoid. She repeatedly checked the other's eyes until she was certain the ancient one loved her.

The ancient one's heart seemed like a straight highway. She could drive along it and see everything inside. If she fell asleep at the wheel, she would wake up still speeding down the road, her destination already near.

Unlike her, whose path was full of twists and turns, like walking through a remote village cut off from the world, where getting to school required crossing a steel cable. One misstep, and you'd fall off a cliff and be smashed to pieces.

She fell asleep.

At seven-thirty, the deafening sound of an alarm clock echoed through the entire apartment.

With a warm, fragrant, soft body in her arms, Shang Yi struggled to get up. She heard Zhang Xu's shriek: "Ah! The door's unlocked! Was there a thief!"

"It's me."

She opened the door and threw a slipper out.

"Sorry!!!"

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